Tambopata, Peru

Expedition Amazon

What does it take to discover a new species? Do butterflies really drink turtle tears? And why do birds and monkeys like to chow down on clay?

These are just some of the questions that drive scientists to spend weeks, months, and sometimes years living in the jungle. Get a unique opportunity to experience this lifestyle by spending a full week with scientists in some of the most remote rainforest eco-lodges in the world, deep in the Peruvian Amazon.

This isn’t your typical Amazon tour. With the help of local tour guides and expert wildlife biologists, you’ll enjoy a rainforest experience unlike any other. On this trip, you’ll learn how real-life field biology works, have a chance to discover and observe new species, and get a living lesson on the ecology and conservation of one of the planet’s most important habitats: the Amazon rainforest.

After arriving from Lima in the riverside Amazon town of Puerto Maldonado, your close-knit crew will set off up the Tambopata River by motorized canoe—the only way to reach the still-untouched Tambopata National Reserve. After leaving civilization behind (don’t worry, the lodges have comfy beds, warm showers, delicious food, and generator-powered electricity in the mornings and evenings, with basic wi-fi), you’ll have a chance to experience some of the most breathtaking wildlife the Amazon has to offer.

Conversations with researchers: Watch scientists present their research, ask them all the questions you can think of, and even assist as they conduct field research. (Think: weighing chicks for parrot researchers weighing chicks and helping aerobotany researchers program their drones).

Night hikes in the jungle: Equipped with a top-of-the-line Coast headlamp, wander into the rainforest after dark to shine a light on unique species of nocturnal frogs, spiders, scorpions, snakes, and more.

Sunrise boat rides: Climb aboard our motorized canoe, led by our local Ese-eja indigenous guide, and head out right at dawn to visit macaw clay-licks and watch the sun rise over the water—and then again at night to see the Milky Way like you've never seen it.

Your Expert Tour Organizers & Guides

Dr. Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist and wildlife reporter who covers animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology from around the world. He’s collared foxes on California’s Channel Islands, gotten sneezed on by iguanas in the Galapagos, tracked lions in South Africa, and traveled deep into the Peruvian Amazon in search of some social spiders. He's written for Scientific American, The Washington Post, and the BBC. He also co-founded SciCommCamp, a science communication retreat and workshop series, and contributes to Scientific American’s “60 Second Science” podcast.

Phil Torres has been bitten by an anaconda, tackled a tiger shark, and gotten lost in a forest full of quicksand… all in the name of science. As a researcher and science communicator, he spent two years living in the Amazon and has worked in Mongolia, Venezuela, Sweden, the Bahamas, the Arctic, and the bottom of the ocean. Phil has made several significant discoveries at the Tambopata Research Center including the decoy spider, a thieving butterfly, and silkhenge, which he will personally show you on this trip. He is the creator and host of The Jungle Diaries and has hosted over 70 episodes of TechKnow on Al Jazeera. His research and wildlife photography has been featured by National Geographic, Wired, and the BBC.

Deposit

A $500 deposit is required to secure your spot. This deposit is nonrefundable after three days. We have limited capacity and expect the trip to fill quickly. The trip will cost $3,990—the $500 deposit plus the $3,490 final payment—and will cover all fixed costs including all accommodations, meals, and activities listed in the itinerary below.

QUESTIONS?

Please email us at trips@atlasobscura.com or call us at (646) 961-4857 with any questions about the itinerary, logistics, and payment.

Itinerary

Day 1

Lima Arrival & Special Museum Tour

Sunday, March 3

Arrive in Lima, the capital and largest city in Peru, by 7 p.m. Travelers who arrive in Lima earlier in the day will have the option to join a guided, behind-the-scenes visit to Lima’s Natural History Museum either in the late morning or early afternoon.

Start getting to know your expedition companions over a group welcome dinner at a restaurant near the hotel.

After dinner, our guides will provide a brief orientation and overview of the upcoming week of adventure. Turn in for a good night’s rest before your morning flight into the jungle. Your Lima hotel is included in the price of your trip. Let us know and we’re happy to book you for extra nights before or after the tour.

Day 2

Into the Jungle

Monday, March 4

Enjoy an early, light breakfast with your new companions in your Lima hotel.

Hop in a van to the airport for a three-hour domestic flight from Lima to Puerto Maldonado, with a pit stop in Cuzco. After landing in Puerto Maldonado, we’ll meet our local guide and take a quick van ride to Rainforest Expeditions HQ, where you can re-pack and change into more comfortable jungle attire. (If there is anything you don’t want to bring into the rainforest, you can leave it at HQ and pick it up on our return.)

After another van ride to the port in the community of Infierno, we’ll board a motorized canoe and head less than an hour upriver to our first lodge, Posada Amazonas, located in Infierno’s Primary Forest Private Reserve. We’ll spot turtles (watch for butterflies drinking their tears!), caimans, and more.

While speeding along on our boat, we’ll enjoy a traditional, tasty, leaf-wrapped lunch.

After checking into our rooms at Posada Amazonas and a briefing from the lodge manager, we’ll head out for a canopy tower climb just in time for sunset. High up above the trees, we’ll watch for canopy-dwellers such as toucans and the seven types of monkeys that live in this area: red howler monkeys, brown capuchins, Toppin's titi monkeys, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, owl monkeys (also called night monkeys), and saddleback tamarins.

Back at the lodge, we’ll get to talk about our days’ worth of observations over dinner, followed by a presentation on community-supported ecotourism by the Ese-eja indigenous guides. Posada Amazonas is co-managed by Rainforest Expeditions in partnership with the local Ese-eja community of Infierno.

The entire rainforest changes once the sun goes down. After dinner, if you still have energy, join us for an optional evening jungle walk; we’ll be looking for spiders, frogs, snakes, and other nocturnal critters.

Day 3

Posada Amazonas

Tuesday, March 5

Breakfast at sunrise.

After a 30-minute boat ride, we’ll arrive at Tres Chimbadas Oxbow Lake. From a catamaran, we’ll try to find the resident family of giant river otters as well as other lake-dwelling critters, including black caiman, anaconda, and hoatzins. Also known as stinkbirds, hoatzins are the only birds that eat leaves, which basically makes them flying cows.

Lunch back at the lodge.

After a 20-minute boat ride, we’ll arrive at Centro Ñape, a communal organization that produces traditional medicines from the forest and administers them at a small clinic. A trail walk will allow travelers to learn about (and possibly try) the different medicinal uses of jungle plants. Many people from the indigenous communities here still go to their local shamans for treatments for everything from insomnia to cancer.

After resting up, we’ll enjoy dinner back in the comfort of Posada Amazonas.

Following dinner, we’ll be treated to a presentation by Phil on his research in the region—and how, exactly, one discovers a new species.

Day 4

Back on the River

Wednesday, March 6

Another early wake-up for a sunrise breakfast.

Ride six hours upriver to the world-renowned Tambopata Research Center (TRC), one of the most remote eco-lodges in the world. As we cross the confluence with the Malinowski River, we will leave the final traces of human habitation behind. Within the 700,000-hectare uninhabited nucleus of the reserve, capybara, caiman, guans, macaws, and other large species will become more frequent. We’ll enjoy a tasty lunch on the water and we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for a tapir or jaguar sighting!

If the weather is cooperative, we’ll stop on the way at Chuncho Clay Lick, the world’s biggest, most spectacular macaw clay-lick where you can see dozens of brilliant, squawking, fantastically colored birds. Scientists have long debated why these birds like to chow down on clay, but research conducted here suggests that it provides a critical source of sodium, which is otherwise lacking from their diets.

After a briefing from the lodge manager at TRC, we’ll check in to our rooms.

Our afternoon jungle walk on the Overlook Trail will take us into a more pristine habitat than we saw during the last two days, and we’ll be on alert for howler monkeys—the loudest animals in the Western hemisphere—and dusky titi monkeys.

After a long day of river travel and wildlife observations, we’ll enjoy a relaxed dinner together back at TRC.

After dinner, the center’s resident parrot researchers will tell us about the most important long-term study of wild macaws in the world, which we’ll get to see first-hand the following day.

If you’re not too tired, you can join us once again for an optional night hike. We’ll search for frogs, snakes, insects, and spiders. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled in particular for one of Phil’s discoveries, the decoy spider, found only here.

Day 5

Macaws

Thursday, March 7

At sunrise, we’ll take a short boat ride to the Colorado Claylick to observe macaws. Hundreds of parrots congregate on this riverbank each morning (as long as it isn’t raining) to eat the clay, a raucous and colorful spectacle.

Back at the research center, we’ll enjoy a hearty breakfast before setting out for a morning of assisting parrot researchers.

We’ll watch as the researchers climb as much as 30 meters above the forest floor to monitor both natural and artificial nests. Back on the ground, we’ll assist as they weigh and measure the chicks to monitor their growth. You’ll be stunned: despite the majestic beauty of adult macaws, the babies are really quite adorably ugly.

Lunch back at TRC.

Ten minutes upriver is a tiny pond with an observation platform in the middle. We’ll look for waterfowl like the Muscovy duck, sunbittern, and hoatzin, along with woodpeckers, oropendolas, flycatchers, and parakeets.

After another delicious dinner, we’ll be treated to a presentation by Jason on life as a wildlife reporter and how he manages to stay optimistic despite the immense conservation challenges the world currently faces. For those needing some perspective on our planet, we can then head to the river to see the Milky Way glowing in the sky.

Day 6

Refugio Amazonas

Friday, March 8

Following breakfast, we’ll take the boat approximately 3.5 hours to our last lodge, Refugio Amazonas.

After checking into our rooms, we’ll head five minutes downriver to a community farm in the nearby community of Condenado, owned and managed by the charismatic Don Manuel. As your guide translates, you will learn all about a typical farm from the local community and will also have the opportunity to see, smell, touch, and taste Amazonian fruits you’ve likely never heard of such as the Copuazu, ‘Fish-eye’ Chili, and Cocona.

After reaching the lodge, we’ll receive a briefing from the lodge manager and settle in before lunch.

Afterwards, we’ll take a walk to a harpy eagle nest! This is the largest bird of prey in the Americas. We’ll also visit the canopy tower to enjoy one last view above the jungle canopy, and observe the Aerobotany researchers programming their drones as they work to understand the incredible diversity of Amazonian plant life from the air.

Before dinner, we’ll hear a lecture from the Wired Amazon researchers about their work studying the region’s elusive mammals by using an array of hundreds of camera traps.

After dinner at the lodge, take one last evening jungle walk to see predatory glow-worms, tailless whip scorpions, and other unique creatures of the night.

Day 7

Rainforest Departure and Farewell

Saturday, March 9

After an early breakfast, we’ll transfer by river back to Puerto Maldonado and then by van to Rainforest Expeditions HQ where we can change and re-pack before returning to the airport.

Depending on timing, we’ll get a feel for what life is like in an Amazonian mining town on a short tour of Puerto Maldonado. Take a spin around the market and taste a palm beetle grub if you’re feeling adventurous (or just hungry).

Fly back to Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport and connect to your flights home. Lunch is on your own in the airport.

We anticipate landing in Lima around 4:30 p.m.; please keep this in mind when booking your flights back home. Departing from the Lima airport at 7 p.m. or later is recommended.

The Fine Print

Your Expedition Amazon Trip includes

All meals and accommodation during your stay, not including alcoholic beverages, beginning with dinner the first night and ending with breakfast the final day. A limited single supplement for the duration of the trip is available for an additional $420.

Internal flights between Lima and Puerto Maldonado, your Tambopata River point of embarkation.

Two expert guides in the field of biology, conservation, and science journalism as well as local guides on each of your rainforest excursions.

Admission to all proposed activities and events, including the Natural History Museum, Tambopata Reserve, and guest lectures.

Tips for the local Amazon guides.

A full briefing packet for each explorer, including country information, logistical and contact information, recommended reading list, and packing list.

A curious group of fellow Atlas Obscura explorers, excited to discover all that the Amazon has to offer!

Travelers are responsible for

Transportation and flights to and from Lima.

Transportation from the Lima airport to the group hotel.

Individual travel insurance (required).

Baggage charges.

Additional meals and drinks outside of Atlas Obscura offerings.

ACTIVITY LEVEL

We recommend you have a medium fitness level to fully participate in this trip. Be prepared to walk up to five miles per day through thick, muddy jungle terrain. Keep in mind this will be much more taxing than five miles of flat pavement. Throughout our time on the river, explorers will be getting in and out of our boat, and you will also have the opportunity to climb multiple canopy towers, which involve several flights of stairs.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Please keep in mind that we are venturing deep into the Amazon jungle to facilities only accessible by boat. If you have any medications, don’t forget to bring enough with you, sealed in plastic Ziploc bags.

The rooms at all three lodges are open to the rainforest on one side so you can fall asleep watching the fireflies and wake up to the throaty calls of howler monkeys. The beds all come equipped with heavy mosquito nets. Don’t forget to put the nets down before you head to dinner each night.

In terms of disease risk, malaria and zika are incredibly rare, but they are present; travelers should consult their own doctors about potential preventative measures. Leishmaniasis is present as well (and is treatable). All of this is why DEET and long sleeves are required, especially at night. Finally, a yellow fever vaccine is not required, but travelers may wish to consult their own doctors. Other CDC recommendations for travel in Peru may be found by clicking here.

Payment

You will be charged a $500 deposit to hold your space. This deposit is nonrefundable after three days. The final payment of $3,490 will be due by November 20, 2018. We will provide an option to pay in two installments, due October 23 and November 20. All reservations will be final after this date, and subject to our cancellation policy. By submitting your deposit, you agree to the trip’s Terms & Conditions. For those wishing to have a single room and/or extra nights at the Lima hotel, optional supplements will be included with the final payment.

Feedback from Past Travelers

"It’s like visiting another planet, full of creatures you never dreamed possible, with habits and lifecycles that blow your mind. There are more leaves of more varied shapes than you can imagine, in infinite shades of green. Creatures great and small everywhere, filling every ecological niche: over your head, in the air, in the trees, in the river, on the riverbanks, by the lodges, underfoot, and right next to your hand - watch where you put it! The symphony starts at dawn with the howler monkeys, the macaws and toucans take over during the day, the insects crescendo at night. Be prepared for hot, hot, wet, wet inside your clothes. You'll come to love your gumboots the way a soldier in combat comes to love his rifle."

"Amazing opportunity to experience the rainforest with people who are knowledgeable and who get truly excited by plants, animals, birds, insects and spiders. They care deeply about conserving the environment and fragile ecosystems and want to support sustainable practices around ecotourism."

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This trip is expensive, why?The cost for this trip includes ground and river transportation, domestic air travel to and from Puerto Maldonado, food, lodging, park entrance fees, local guides, and all activities for a tight-knit group of 14 explorers. We chose the accommodations based upon several factors including sustainability; sustainable and fair ecotourism providers can cost a bit more. By traveling with us, you will also get the rare chance to learn from and nerd out with Phil Torres and Jason G. Goldman, both of whom are wildlife biologists, skilled photographers, and seasoned science journalists who have traveled the globe in search of gripping stories about the natural world.

How tough is this trip?While Rainforest Expeditions excels at catering to travelers, and the lodges are quite nice and the food is delicious, please keep in mind we are venturing deep into the Amazon jungle to facilities only accessible by boat. We’ll be walking several miles per day through warm and humid jungle habitats on trails that in some places are covered in ankle-deep mud. Visiting this part of the world requires moderate physical effort, but the reward when you see your first wild macaws or catch a glimpse of an elusive tapir is well worth it. That being said, we’ve been alongside people of all ages in this rainforest. Our days should not feel exhausting; you’ll be hiking just hard enough to get a very good night’s sleep every night.

Do we need vaccinations?Peru does not require any immunizations for entry, although it recommends vaccination against Yellow Fever. Travelers may wish to consult their own doctors. Other CDC recommendations for travel in Peru may be found by clicking here.

Will I be sharing a room?Space at these remote lodges is limited, which means you will most likely be sharing a room with one or two fellow travelers, though we do offer a very limited number of single rooms available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Do I need a travel visa?All you need to enter and depart Peru is a valid passport with evidence of return or onward travel. With a U.S. passport, you will automatically receive a free 90-day tourist visa. For more information, see the State Department’s Peru travel page.

What is ecotourism?The International Ecotourism Society has formally defined ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education.” In other words, it is an effort to combine sustainable travel with ecosystem-level conservation and the explicit recognition of and respect for the rights of indigenous people. That’s why ecotourism is more than just “nature tourism”; it has the explicit goal of benefiting local communities both environmentally and economically. By providing financial incentives through tourism, these communities can become empowered to fight against poverty, and in achieving a more sustainable sort of economic development, can better resist other more exploitative industries like mining, agriculture, ranching, or logging. Ecotourism has also motivated the traditional tourism industry in general to move towards more “green” or sustainable practices.

OTHER QUESTIONS?

Please email us at trips@atlasobscura.com or call us at (646) 961-4857 with any questions about the itinerary, logistics, and payment.

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No purchase necessary. Winner will be selected at random on 01/01/2019. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). Offer subject to change without notice. See contest rules for full details.

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